By the way, regarding Matthew Yglesias's admission today in Slate that the two criminals who knocked him down with punches as he walked about a mile north of the Supreme Court building were black ... I've often been accused of racial profiling and racist bigotry (which, in today's dominant narrative are assumed to be identical) for assuming that Yglesias's assailants were black. After all, Yglesias's original account of the apparently random attack didn't mention the race of the criminals.
My reasoning was two-fold:
- that nonblack criminals generally don't hang around in black neighborhoods to commit random street crimes like beating up strolling white philosophy majors
- and Yglesias would have said so if they weren't black.
(Moreover, several months after the assault, he mentioned on his former blog that they were black, confirming my initial surmise, but that blog became hard to search after he moved to Slate.)
Obviously, I was right all along from day one.
But being right is racist.
That's one of the causes of the current vast eruption of liberal white rage -- out of all the screwed up stuff that happens on the streets of America every year, the mainstream media picked this incident out to put all their chips on in their condemnation of profiling.
But then, it turned out that Zimmerman's suspicions were highly accurate. As one commenter says, Trayvon Martin turned out to be a petty criminal with violent tendencies and an apparent history of burglary.
But then, it turned out that Zimmerman's suspicions were highly accurate. As one commenter says, Trayvon Martin turned out to be a petty criminal with violent tendencies and an apparent history of burglary.
Now, in defense of the late Trayvon Martin, let me point out that a lot of guys with Martin's bad but not horrible record at age 17 pull out of this downward spiral before, say, they start engaging in drive-by shootings. A lot of 17-year-olds are surly, greedy, and stupid. More than a few of them wise up as they get older, as they discover that their rap music isn't really good advice on how to live. Martin was reasonably well-poised to wake up to the trajectory he was upon: he didn't come from the bottom of society, but from a pretty average African-American family. For example, he had a father who was still involved enough in his life to haul him out of Miami to get him away from his low-life friends during his school suspension.
But, all this just makes the story more tragic.
But, all this just makes the story more tragic.
The Martin-Zimmerman story should be an occasion for national reflection about the perniciousness of today's dominant stereotypes, specifically:
-- White liberals' favorite stereotypes about blacks as the eternal victims of the violent white racists hiding under every bed
-- Black males' favorite stereotypes about themselves as bulletproof tough guys who are morally justified by their victimhood in responding to being dissed with violence.
These two stereotypes have the peculiar disadvantage of being both not true individually (unlike the majority of less socially reputable stereotypes) and interacting with horrible consequences. White liberal hatred for white conservatives and black love of gangsta rap interact very, very badly.
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38 comments:
"For example, he had a father who was still involved enough in his life to haul him out of Miami to get him away from his low-life friends during his school suspension."
The same father with whom Trayvon was discussing acquiring a firearm?
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/07/10/trayvon-martins-own-father-was-one-of-the-people-texting-trayvon-about-buying-and-selling-guns-researching-the-names-from-don-west-delivered-proffer-hearing-multiple-francining-moments/
Blacks smoke crack, white prog smoke Correck.
...and Yglesias would have said so if they weren't black.
Yep. It's hardly racist to notice when you don't see the assailant's race in the newspaper either the reporter doesn't know or the attacker was black. In this case Yglesias would have known their race.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/Mexican_police_chief_killed_with_rifle_lost_in_ATF_gun-tracking_program.html
i liked Yglesias' "majority-black city" thing. He lives no doubt in a majority white neighborhood in a majority white region in a majority white nation (so-called). It's all a matter of emphasis. Nachoan.
I read your blog regularly and am with you on many issues. I just read though that Zimmerman was taking mixed martial arts classes. What are the chances that he thought that he could take Travon to the ground and prevent him from leaving until the police arrived ?
He may have been deceiving himself about how good a fighter he was and ended up in a position where he had to use his pistol.
AKAHorace
and Yglesias would have said so if they weren't black
Indeed, if they had been white he would have verily rejoiced (it would have almost been worth it), and we'd (or Slate readers, at least) would be hearing about the race of his assailants in this particular column for the umpteenth, rather than first, time.
Trayvon's father was married to another woman while having a girlfriend in Sanford. Not exactly the best role model around.
@ Anon
"What are the chances that he thought that he could take Travon to the ground and prevent him from leaving until the police arrived ? "
His trainer testified that on the scale o to 10 Zim's martial art skills rated at 0.2 (if I am not mistaken, could be 1.2). Zimmerman was perfectly aware of his lousy fist fighting abilities, that is why he wanted to buy more guns.
OK, Anon , thanks for the fast answer, but just to be clear, Zimmerman actually admitted to others before the fight with Travon that he was a lousy fighter ? these were Zimmerman's words and not the trainers ?
A reference would be welcome.
AKAHorace
"he didn't come from the bottom of society, but from a pretty average African-American family."
Actually, above average. His parents, though divorced, had been married.
I do feel sorry for both Sybrina and Tracy, esp. the mom. Tracy should have taught Tray not to try to smash someone's head against the pavement. A boy can get killed that way.
@ Anon
Here is the link with Mark O'Mara's question and gym owner's answer (apparently, his skills were rated at 0.5)
MOM: "On scale of 1-10, when GZ first got to gym, what level?" "1" "Less than 1?" "Yes." ...Zimmerman came to the gym as a 0.5, and left the gym a year later as a 1. Zimmerman was diligent, but not previously athletic."
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/07/08/thread-4-day-20-week-5-zimmerman-trial-witness-discussion-thread/
(You need to scroll down, or just cut and paste "on scale of 1-10" in the search box).
In regards to your question if these were Z-man's words or someone else's, for the life of me I will not be able to find the reference. It's buried somewhere in comment section to one of the trial threads on CTH web site. These were his friends' or gym mates' words, as far as I remember.
Thanks, I may hunt this down myself.
all the best,
AKAHorace
OK, it gets a bit odd now.
go to
http://kogym.com/zimmerman.htm
To receive information about the training George Zimmerman received at KOKOPELLI'S GYM, please email request by filling out the form provided below.
Zimmerman Training Information Request Form
* George Zimmerman training information will be provided for those who request it after the completion of the trial.
AKAHorace
@ Horace
You are welcome.
Daddy had a neck tattoo, "CaT" which some claim stands for Crippin all de Time. After the event he covered it up with another larger tattoo, that of a pair of hands clasped together in prayer. Goes better with a jacket and tie for the cameras.
I read your blog regularly and am with you on many issues. I just read though that Zimmerman was taking mixed martial arts classes. What are the chances that he thought that he could take Travon to the ground and prevent him from leaving until the police arrived ?
What are the chances that 5'9", pudgy mestizo Zimmerman can catch 6'2", 158lbs, athletic, black 17 year old Martin, who is aware of being followed, unless Martin wants the fight? I'd say approximately zero.
Matt Yglesias should live in one of Washington D.C's housing projects for 1 year, as an experiment.
Preferably the housing project with the highest crime rate in the entire city.
https://www.facebook.com/TheRealGeorgeZimmerman
I've often been accused of racial profiling and racist bigotry (which, in today's dominant narrative are assumed to be identical) for assuming that Yglesias's assailants were black. After all, Yglesias's original account of the apparently random attack didn't mention the race of the criminals.
As Yglesias got mugged in DC, it is not exactly rocket science to assume that the muggers were black.
I once got mugged in the East End of Houston. I had no money on me- I had just stepped out for an evening stroll. Because I had no money, the muggers took my glasses. That didn't bother me because I had recently ordered a new set of glasses, which I picked up several days later.
The irony of the mugging was that the East End of Houston is Hispanic/Mexican, and my muggers were Anglo.
He kinda has a point, I can't remember a time when I was attacked by black people but If I am in a black neighborhood, I walk in constant fear of them... it's true by the way
I'm 33.
Did TrayTray swing on a bus driver? Is the story true? Because if he did you can bet the bus driver wasn't black, and if he/she wasn't that would blow the whole case out of the water. Trayvon would be exposed as the racist thug that he was. Maybe that's why the press isn't interested in looking into it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151748722165428&set=a.10151634773955428.1073741827.27088225427&type=1&theater
Beavis and Butthead are back.
The fact Zim lived in a gated community that saw a rash of breakins is brought up often enough, but what's seldom brought up is the reality of crime in the rest of Sanford: http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Sanford-Florida.html
Sanford, a city with a high crime rate largely due to property crime, and in the 2 years leading up to the shooting saw a spike in burglaries.
Zimmerman had more reason to profile Trayvon than people realize.
Genius post Steve. If you're not donating 50-100 bucks a year to Steve, you're stealing. Straight up stealing.
Dani in DC
You can get an idea of who the clowns and closet realists of the Left/Media are at times like this. I mean, who better than Lefty prophet Nate Silver to weigh in on a subject like this and show how dumb it was for a member of Zimmermann's neighborhood to suspect a teenage, hood wearing, black male, walking around at night to be up to no good...It would be interesting for someone to make a list of all the dogs who aren't barking right now.
As for the clowns, where do you even start with this piece? Notice the complete straw man argument: Nobody is saying that Zimmerman should suspect every black man he sees in black DC of being a criminal. What they are saying is that it is not a bad guess that a black teen in Zimmerman's neighborhood at that time of night had a reasonably high probability of being up to no good.
Yeah, maybe Martin would have pulled out from becoming a career criminal. We don't know one way or the other but we do know that he committed a vicious attack on Zimmerman and likely intended leave Zimmerman dead or a vegetable. What he did that night put him beyond the pale and beyond pondering that he might have become a good person some day.
He was a bad person. Only a bad person would assault a total stranger and pound the stranger's head into the ground.
Jeralyn Merrit at Talkleft.com says that the prosecution did nothing to humanize Martin and thats unusual in a murder case. But it was a strategic decision because if they had tried to say Martin was a good human being, it would have allowed the defense to bring in all the bad stuff and there is a ton of it.
"Now, in defense of the late Trayvon Martin, let me point out that a lot of guys with Martin's bad but not horrible record at age 17 pull out of this downward spiral before, say, they start engaging in drive-by shootings."
Quite.
The percentage of white blue-collar men who pick up a criminal record over something they did in their teens but nothing since their early 20s is very high also.
This isn't an argument against profiling them when they're in the dangerous age where their testosterone has matured before their brains.
"Trayvon's father was married to another woman while having a girlfriend in Sanford. Not exactly the best role model around."
Better than average though.
I read your blog regularly and am with you on many issues. I just read though that Zimmerman was taking mixed martial arts classes. What are the chances that he thought that he could take Travon to the ground and prevent him from leaving until the police arrived ?
That makes no sense from his standpoint because there are liability issues involved. What if he breaks the guy's arm? What if the guy's not a burglar?
We just survived an armed robbery here in South Africa. Our neighbors were not so lucky.
The cops do nothing because they are incompetent, having fired most whites, and because the police is involved in these crimes. People higher up in the pecking order skim a lot of money off these crimes.
The only way to protect yourself in this modern world where the authorities are incompetent and anti-white, and criminals are protected by law, is to take control of your environment. Criminals will prey on the weakest situation, so if you are in control of your property, they will stay away.
"Chicago said...
Daddy had a neck tattoo, "CaT" which some claim stands for Crippin all de Time. After the event he covered it up with another larger tattoo, that of a pair of hands clasped together in prayer. Goes better with a jacket and tie for the cameras."
Yeah, nothing says "stable fatherly influence" like a neck-tattoo.
The analysis of the black menace by Bayes theorem is wrongheaded. That's simply not how humans are put together. It's a stupid argument.
For example, the hiking path near my house has a sign posted that warns about mountain lions. I remember from when I was a Boy Scout that there have been no authenticated cases of a puma ever attacking a human being. So were I to spot a mountain lion out on the trail I should just continue on walking pass the lion and feel safe relying on the math to protect me.
Sure.
Even Jesse Jackson has admitted that a dark ally and an approaching black man makes your anal sphincter clench.
The psychological theorist Egon Brunswick explained all this decades ago. Human perceptions are the function of probabilistic calculations of which you are not aware. The danger response that you express when you see black teens is sub-cortical. It is not a conscious mathematical calculation. At one time it probably was, but those guys were all eaten by lions.
Albertosaurus
"guys with Martin's bad but not horrible record at age 17 pull out of this downward spiral before, say, they start engaging in drive-by shootings."
I'd be more inclined to agree with that potential trajectory if he hadn't been slamming someone's head into the concrete after tackling them in a sneak attack. He was likely sadistic enough to progress into murder one.
Yglesias's credibility as a public safety lecturer is problematic.
But his ability to absorb a beating and go on loving Big Brother is nonpareil.
Did TrayTray swing on a bus driver? Is the story true? Because if he did you can bet the bus driver wasn't black, and if he/she wasn't that would blow the whole case out of the water. Trayvon would be exposed as the racist thug that he was. Maybe that's why the press isn't interested in looking into it."
Just for argument sake there, Sport, I count 2"ifs", one "you can bet", two "woulds" and one "maybe"; all in one paragraph. Good job, John Wayne
I just read though that Zimmerman was taking mixed martial arts classes. What are the chances that he thought that he could take Travon to the ground and prevent him from leaving until the police arrived ?
He may have been deceiving himself about how good a fighter he was and ended up in a position where he had to use his pistol.
The second-hand impression I got from the blogs I read that were closely following was that Zimmerman was a wuss, sucked at MMA, and knew it.
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